I sent in all my paperwork to the LEA for my Niederlassungserlaubnis in July 2024, only to be given a 7 am appointment in January 2025. When I didn't bring my husband with me (why would I?), I was told I had to return with him two days later, also before dawn, so he could sign a document attesting that we really do live together. When all this was over, I was told I could come pick up my new Ausweis on March 30, which happens to be my due date for giving birth. This process has taken as long as it takes to gestate a human and is somehow more painful😭
My understanding is that they are handing out appointments just in time (or just after 🙄) your previous visa expires, not in order of when you apply. This was my experience and that of several other people I know dealing with them in the last 18 months or so. Infuriating because one can be “entitled” to certain status changes earlier than they’re handing them out.
I wish that had been the case for me😭 My residence permit expired in November, and so I wasn't able to travel at all for the holidays (attempting to get a Fiktionsbescheinigung was another exercise in frustration)
I’m really sorry, I know how frustrating it is to do everything right and hand in everything SO MANY months before you have to, and still get screwed over by Berlin’s shitty bureaucracy
The LEA is an absolute mess. My partner and I applied for a renewal of our Blue Card residence permits in July last year. We got an appointment in reasonable time, the LEA officials were nice, and all was in order. We were handed temporary extensions while we wait for our new physical cards to arrive in the mail. Huzzah.
From that point, a downward spiral. We knew they are swamped and gave them ample time. After five months of waiting, we reached out via their contact form to follow up on the absence of our new permits. Nothing. In late January, the temporary papers they gave us were set to expire. Two weeks before this, we reached out again, this time selecting the "emergency" option in the contact form. We send another emergency the day before it expired. Nothing!
For us it's a privilege to live here, so we made extra sure to do everything perfectly. Beyond the existential stress caused, health insurers and employers have started asking questions.
The urgency and radio silence, and absolutely no other way to contact them (all tel nrs go to prerecorded messages, their offices basically have bouncers that demand to see an appointment confirmation to let you inside) gave us no choice but to pay a significant sum for legal representation and are now hoping for the best.
Reading your newsletter made me feel at least a little bit better, knowing we're not alone in this. Thanks for that. As for waiting 7 months for the LEA to send us a piece of plastic... I never thought I'd miss South Africa's openly corrupt barely-functioning government offices!
LEA really feels like Russian roulette! I recently had a surprisingly positive experience with them. I was applying for my permanent residency and had an international trip coming up. The attendant offered me a temporary card that allowed me to leave the EU, and even though they said my ID would take three months, it was ready in just one. The first date they gave me to pick it up didn’t work because I’d be traveling, so I emailed them with the dates I’d be in Berlin—just five days before traveling again—and they gave me the option to pick it up the day before my trip.
Can definitely confirm it's a bit of a mess at the LEA. I sent in my application for a settlement permit via the contact form (the only clear way to send to them on matters that aren't yet fully digitalized) in July and didn't receive any acknowledgment of it until early December, when they confirmed for me that they had received all my documents, that it would take several months yet to process them and that I shouldn't contact them in the meantime.
I lost my job in October due to a layoff (surprise surprise) and I've been sending dozens of emails to LEA through the contact form since then to ask about the grace period for my workers visa. It's been over 3 months and they never replied, and I have no idea what my deadline is. It's making me more anxious and stressed than the actual job searching and unemployment benefit drama. All my colleagues who were dismissed with me already got their reply, but I'm the "lucky" one who disappeared in their system apparently.
I tried to activate the eID function on my Ausweis at the Bürgeramt, and then found out it can only be done at the LEA (yeah, I missed the Hinweis section, my bad—but still super annoying).
Now I’m stuck (a bunch of services in Germany can be done online only when you have this eID function enabled) and waiting...
I’ve already sent the email using the form a few weeks ago, but I haven’t even gotten a reply to confirm they received it.
Hey hey, I actually had a very smooth communication with LEA. I submitted papers in May 2024, got asked to update the work paperwork in December, in January got an appointment. I even needed to reschedule the appointment and that was also smooth. One thing I still don't understand is why they ask us to schedule a day at the Burgeramt (to do the passport and ID card) if they actually have that service on the day at the LEA. :)
I sent in all my paperwork to the LEA for my Niederlassungserlaubnis in July 2024, only to be given a 7 am appointment in January 2025. When I didn't bring my husband with me (why would I?), I was told I had to return with him two days later, also before dawn, so he could sign a document attesting that we really do live together. When all this was over, I was told I could come pick up my new Ausweis on March 30, which happens to be my due date for giving birth. This process has taken as long as it takes to gestate a human and is somehow more painful😭
Wow, that sounds exhausting. Best of luck to you!
My understanding is that they are handing out appointments just in time (or just after 🙄) your previous visa expires, not in order of when you apply. This was my experience and that of several other people I know dealing with them in the last 18 months or so. Infuriating because one can be “entitled” to certain status changes earlier than they’re handing them out.
I wish that had been the case for me😭 My residence permit expired in November, and so I wasn't able to travel at all for the holidays (attempting to get a Fiktionsbescheinigung was another exercise in frustration)
I’m really sorry, I know how frustrating it is to do everything right and hand in everything SO MANY months before you have to, and still get screwed over by Berlin’s shitty bureaucracy
The LEA is an absolute mess. My partner and I applied for a renewal of our Blue Card residence permits in July last year. We got an appointment in reasonable time, the LEA officials were nice, and all was in order. We were handed temporary extensions while we wait for our new physical cards to arrive in the mail. Huzzah.
From that point, a downward spiral. We knew they are swamped and gave them ample time. After five months of waiting, we reached out via their contact form to follow up on the absence of our new permits. Nothing. In late January, the temporary papers they gave us were set to expire. Two weeks before this, we reached out again, this time selecting the "emergency" option in the contact form. We send another emergency the day before it expired. Nothing!
For us it's a privilege to live here, so we made extra sure to do everything perfectly. Beyond the existential stress caused, health insurers and employers have started asking questions.
The urgency and radio silence, and absolutely no other way to contact them (all tel nrs go to prerecorded messages, their offices basically have bouncers that demand to see an appointment confirmation to let you inside) gave us no choice but to pay a significant sum for legal representation and are now hoping for the best.
Reading your newsletter made me feel at least a little bit better, knowing we're not alone in this. Thanks for that. As for waiting 7 months for the LEA to send us a piece of plastic... I never thought I'd miss South Africa's openly corrupt barely-functioning government offices!
Very sorry you have to go through that. Fingers crossed it gets resolved soon.
LEA really feels like Russian roulette! I recently had a surprisingly positive experience with them. I was applying for my permanent residency and had an international trip coming up. The attendant offered me a temporary card that allowed me to leave the EU, and even though they said my ID would take three months, it was ready in just one. The first date they gave me to pick it up didn’t work because I’d be traveling, so I emailed them with the dates I’d be in Berlin—just five days before traveling again—and they gave me the option to pick it up the day before my trip.
Can definitely confirm it's a bit of a mess at the LEA. I sent in my application for a settlement permit via the contact form (the only clear way to send to them on matters that aren't yet fully digitalized) in July and didn't receive any acknowledgment of it until early December, when they confirmed for me that they had received all my documents, that it would take several months yet to process them and that I shouldn't contact them in the meantime.
I lost my job in October due to a layoff (surprise surprise) and I've been sending dozens of emails to LEA through the contact form since then to ask about the grace period for my workers visa. It's been over 3 months and they never replied, and I have no idea what my deadline is. It's making me more anxious and stressed than the actual job searching and unemployment benefit drama. All my colleagues who were dismissed with me already got their reply, but I'm the "lucky" one who disappeared in their system apparently.
I tried to activate the eID function on my Ausweis at the Bürgeramt, and then found out it can only be done at the LEA (yeah, I missed the Hinweis section, my bad—but still super annoying).
Now I’m stuck (a bunch of services in Germany can be done online only when you have this eID function enabled) and waiting...
I’ve already sent the email using the form a few weeks ago, but I haven’t even gotten a reply to confirm they received it.
Sometimes I ask myself what am I doing in here 🤣
Hey hey, I actually had a very smooth communication with LEA. I submitted papers in May 2024, got asked to update the work paperwork in December, in January got an appointment. I even needed to reschedule the appointment and that was also smooth. One thing I still don't understand is why they ask us to schedule a day at the Burgeramt (to do the passport and ID card) if they actually have that service on the day at the LEA. :)